Patch 4.1 on Live Servers this Week

Update - The official trailer appeared on Youtube.

Patch 4.1 on Live Servers this Week
The patch is now available in weird places of the internet and we reached the point where we can pretty much confirm that the patch will be deployed on live realms this week. The "pretty much" is only here if an apocalypse happens and Blizzard has to postpone the patch (but it never happened).

It's time for the super-giant recap of the patch features, with highlights on the most interesting stuff. Enjoy!

Patch 4.1 Dungeon Call To Arms Interface/Mechanics
The new Dungeon Call to Arms feature allows you to get extra rewards if you are one of the most needed role in the LFD dungeon system. If the screenshots below aren't enough, check out the official posts!

New Valor Points and Daily Dungeons gains in Patch 4.1
One of the fairly awesome change of this patch is the change to daily dungeon bonus rewards. You no longer have to run the daily dungeon every day to get your valor points, there is now a weekly cap of 7 dungeons that you can run at any time: You can run 7 dungeons on sunday and get all your valor points for the week!

Originally Posted by Lylirra
(Blue Tracker)

Right now, you receive 70 VP for the first random Cataclysm Heroic dungeon you complete each day. In 4.1, you'll receive 70 VP for the first seven random Cataclysm Heroic dungeons you complete each week. Similarly, you'll receive 140 VP for the first seven random Rise of the Zandalari Heroic dungeons (the new Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub instances) you complete in the week, too. Collectively, you'll be able to earn up to 980 VP exclusively from Heroic dungeons, which in turn will count towards your weekly 1250 VP cap.

By transitioning random Heroic dungeon rewards from a daily format to a weekly one, we'll be able to give players more control and flexibility over how they can earn VP -- which is cool! -- but this also means that we've a lot more bookkeeping to do in terms of where those points are coming from. To help with that, we're adding a "Valor Point bar" (similar to an XP bar) to the top of Dungeon Finder UI that will track your weekly cap, as well as how many Heroics you can still run for VP during the week.

We're going to be writing up a pretty big blog about that system since it's somewhat complicated, but here's what you can take away right now:

In 4.1, running random Heroic dungeons for VP is now something you can do on your own schedule. Feel like spending your entire Saturday queuing up as random? No problem!

The first seven random Rise of the Zandalari Heroics you run for the week will award 140 VP each. This is double the VP that you’ll receive from your first seven random "tier 1" Cataclysm Heroics, since the dungeons are considered a "step up" in difficulty.

You'll be able to randomly queue for the Rise of the Zandalari Heroics separately from the tier 1 Cataclysm Heroic dungeons.

Each week you can earn up to 980 VP just by running random Heroic dungeons. If you want to maximize your VP gains, you can still reach the overall weekly cap of 1250 by defeating raid level content.

This isn't yet on the PTR for testing. We'll let you know when it is, though, and will continue to provide more information as the development of 4.1 progresses.

New Dungeons - Zul'aman and Zul'gurb (Heroic 5-Man)
Zul'aman and Zul'Gurub are back as heroic-only dungeons! You can check out the video previews from OMFGCata and the Yogscast, the official preview from the link below, and the loot list (with screenshots)!

Heirloom Tanking Items introduced in Patch 4.1
A new set of tanking heirloom has been added in this patch, this set is available from your regular sources of heirlooms (vendors, guild rewards, etc ...). I also included the legs part of this set but it is not available in game yet.

Maelstrom Crystals and Honor/Justice conversion in Patch 4.1
In this patch you can buy Maelstrom Crystal from your honor and justice reward vendors. You can also convert your Honor Points into Justice Points and vice versa.

Patch 4.1: Guild Challenges

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker)

In addition to updating Zul’Gurub and Zul’Aman for level-85 players, we're also excited about another patch 4.1 feature: Guild Challenges. Built into the Info panel of the guild user interface, Guild Challenges will be weekly tasks guild groups can tackle for additional guild experience, achievements, and gold.

This feature has been designed and implemented to be quite simple. At the top of the guild user interface Info pane, a new Guild Challenges section will be displayed and broken into three categories: Dungeons, Raids, and Rated Battlegrounds. Any guild group will qualify for Guild Challenges credit and there is a set number of times each challenge can be completed per week. There’s no need to add a quest to your Quest Log or anything of that nature. Just grab a guild group eligible for any of the challenges and go.

Completing a Guild Challenge will result in a popup to confirm credit has been awarded, similar to achievement popups (or “toasts”). The participating guild members will then earn experience for their guild. In addition, a gold reward will be deposited directly to the Guild Vault. The gold and experience rewarded varies for each challenge type, but you won’t have to worry about receiving reduced rewards if, say, you happen to be in a guild group that completes a raid or dungeon on normal difficulty. Since there is a limited number of times each challenge type can be completed per week, we want to make sure guilds don’t feel set back if a guild group of level-18 players receives credit for completing Deadmines, versus a level-85 guild group completing Heroic Deadmines. The same applies to normal and Heroic difficulty raid progression. Provided the content is level-appropriate for your guild group, you’ll earn experience and gold for your guild.

To earn Guild Dungeon Challenge credit, the 5-player party must be composed of at least 3 guild members. Raid and Rated Battleground Challenges require that 8 out of 10 players be guild members, while 20 guild members are required to earn credit for 25-player raids. To earn gold for Guild Challenge rewards, a guild must be level 5 or higher and the participating members must have earned honored reputation with the guild. For example, 3 out of 5 guild members in a 5-player party must be honored to earn gold for the guild. If those three guild members have only reached friendly reputation, they would still receive credit and earn guild experience, but the guild would not receive gold.

So, let’s say your guild has been regularly hitting the daily experience cap. You might be wondering how beneficial it’d be to do Guild Challenges. Well wonder no more, amigos: Guild Challenges award guild experience above the cap. Think of it like rested experience. The guild experience cap will extend itself relative to the guild experience earned by completing these challenges. It’s a great way to get an extra edge on your guild leveling! Not only that, if your guild reaches the level cap, continuing to partake in Guild Challenges will yield a much more substantial sum of gold deposited directly into the Guild Vault.

We’re very happy with Guild Challenges and feel that they’re a fun way to continue expanding upon all of the new guild features added in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Your feedback regarding this system is always appreciated, as you can be sure we’ll be looking for ways to beef it up in future patches.

Patch 4.1 Archaeology Rewards
Patch 4.1 adds a couple of Archaeology rewards to the game. The Fossile and Troll branches are getting some love and you should be able to find these new rare items after the patches.

Winged Guardian Video Preview
The Winged Guardian is included in the game files and could be available shortly after the release of the patch. The mount will be available from the Blizzard store at some point after the release of Patch 4.1 and includes a very nice light effect on the wings, check out the video!

Target position on Minimap in Patch 4.1
Patch 4.1 adds a very useful feature to the game, anything you target will now have its position displayed on the minimap! It's obviously very useful when you're looking for a NPC after using the /target command and I'm sure it will make a couple of rare elite hunters happy. (Unless you have NPCScan, in this case you're probably already happy)

Patch 4.1 Cooking and Fishing Daily Quests
New Cooking and Fishing Dailies have been added to Darnassus, Ironforge, Thunder Bluff, and Undercity in this patch.

Patch 4.1: Rise of the Zandalari Features
Last but not least, the official preview and patch notes!

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker)

Patch 4.1 will soon be upon us, and it’s high time we dig into the meat of this patch to digest the new content, features, and official patch notes. The rise of the Zandalari is happening soon on a realm near you, so make sure you’ve read up on the new level-85 Stranglethorn quest line, as well as the updated dungeons of Zul’Gurub and Zul’Aman -- now suitable for five level-85 players with an average item level of 346 or higher. All-new epic gear, rare mounts, pets, and other interesting treasures await you, should you be able to rise to the challenge of the Zandalari!

If you’ve found yourself waiting in dungeon queues longer than you’d like, we have a new system, Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms, you should know about. The Dungeon Finder will be offering an additional incentive to players of underrepresented class roles. With this feature we hope to get you into the action faster.

We’ve also built a new Guild Finder feature into the game interface and plan to expand upon its functionality in upcoming patches. Whether you’re a player looking for a guild, or a guild leader looking to recruit, this system facilitates those activities. We’re continuing to update, improve, and adjust the Guild Advancement system and want to make sure you’re given the tools to find and maintain a fun guild.

If you’re already tackling content with your guildmates, you’ll probably be interested in the upcoming Guild Challenges. By completing dungeons, raids, and Rated Battlegrounds in guild groups, you’ll attain new achievements, accrue gold for the Guild Vault, and earn guild experience above the current daily cap. We plan to introduce more Guild Challenges in future updates.

The days when great troll empires stretched across ancient Kalimdor are long past. Millennia of war and internal strife have stripped these nations of their power, lands, and glory. As Azeroth recovers from the destruction of the Cataclysm, the world's divided troll populations face a bleak future. These dark times have spurred the trolls of the Zandalar, the historically wise and scholarly tribe from which all trolls originated, to take drastic action. They have embarked on a bold crusade to save their race by uniting trolls into a single mighty empire. With the Zandalari's aid, the fallen capitals of the Gurubashi and Amani nations—Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman—are already rebuilding, replenishing their forces for a bloody campaign to expand their territories.

Yet Vol'jin and his Darkspear trolls are not aligned with the Zandalari. They have sworn to stand with their Horde comrades—and even work with the Alliance—should the trolls ignite a new war on Azeroth. Soon, Vol'jin might be forced to act on his promise, for if the Gurubashi and Amani are left to their own devices, the world will know the legendary strength and savagery of the ancient troll empires once again.

Guild Challenges

Built into the Info panel of the guild user interface, Guild Challenges are weekly tasks guild groups can tackle for additional guild experience, achievements, and gold. At the top of the guild user interface Info pane, a new Guild Challenges section is displayed and broken into three categories: Dungeons, Raids, and Rated Battlegrounds. Any guild group will qualify for Guild Challenges credit and there is a set number of times each challenge can be completed per week.

Guild Finder

Guild Finder is a new system designed to enable easier and faster guild recruitment. Guild leaders and players who are looking for a guild to call home will use the Guild Finder to meet one another and begin communications that can lead to a prosperous membership. Whether you're a guild leader looking to fill your ranks or a player looking for a guild that meets your strictest requirements, the Guild Finder provides an easy way to make new friends!

Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms

A new system intended to lower queue times, Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms offers additional rewards for queuing as the currently least represented role. To be eligible for the additional rewards you must solo queue for a random level-85 Heroic in the role that is currently being Called to Arms, and complete the dungeon by killing the final boss. Every time you hit these requirements (there is no daily limit) you'll receive a goodie bag that will contain some gold, a chance at a rare gem, a chance at a flask/potion, a good chance of receiving a non-combat pet (including cross faction pets), and a very rare chance at receiving a mount.

General

Conquest Points are now purchasable from the Valor Quartermasters at 250 Conquest Points per 250 Valor Points.

Honor Points are now purchasable from the Justice Trade Goods vendors at 250 Honor Points per 375 Justice Points.

Justice Points are now purchasable from the Honor Trade Goods vendors at 250 Justice Points per 375 Honor Points.

Resilience scaling has been modified for linear returns, as opposed to increasing returns. Under the new formula, going from 30 resilience to 40 resilience gives players the same increase to survivability as going from 0 to 10. Resilience now scales in the same way armor and magic resistances do. A player with 32.5% damage reduction from resilience in 4.0.6 should see their damage reduction unchanged in 4.1. Those with less than 32.5% will gain slightly. Those with more will lose some damage reduction, increasingly so as their resilience climbs.

A dead player can now be resurrected by targeting them using the Party or Raid Frame even if they have released. No more hunting for corpses.

Achievements

A new feat of strength with an associated title, "the Camel-Hoarder", has been added for players that have bested Dormus and obtained the Reins of the Grey Riding Camel -- because there must always be a Camel-Hoarder.

PvP

The following Battleground achievements have been permanently removed from the game, as they do not function correctly with the achievement tracking system: Guild Gankin' in Gilneas, Guild Gulch, The Peak of Perfection, The Perfect Guild Storm, Storming the Beach.

Rated Battlegrounds

The achievements to win 100 rated Battlegrounds have been renamed to "Veteran of the Alliance" and "Veteran of the Horde", and now award those titles.

Achievements to win 300 rated Battlegrounds have been added, awarding the "Warbound" and "Warbringer" titles to the Alliance and Horde respectively.

Arathi Basin

The achievement "We Had It All Along *cough*" now requires the player to win Arathi Basin by 50 points or less, up from 10 points or less.

The Battle for Gilneas

The achievement "Jugger Not" now requires the player to win The Battle for Gilneas by 100 points or less, up from 10 points or less.

The achievement "Out of the Fog" requires the player to defend 2 bases in a single battle, down from 3.

The achievement "One Two Three You Don't Know About Me" requires the player to assault 2 bases in a single battle, down from 3.

The achievement "Not Your Average PUG'er" now requires 10 total flag defenses, down from 50.

The achievement "Battle for Gilneas All-Star" now requires a single flag assault and flag defense in a battle, down from 2.

Achievements Bug Fixes

The guild rated Battleground title achievements should now properly be awarded.

Valor and Conquest Points are displaying the correct values when tracked for achievements.

Several persistent ground effects now display different visuals for hostile and friendly players. The following spells have the same visual effects for friendly players, but new alternate visuals for hostile players: Ring of Frost, Consecration, Desecration, Wild Mushroom, Flare, Ice Trap, Power Word: Barrier, Smoke Bomb, and Hand of Gul'dan. As a general rule, the alternate effects have a red tint or hue indicating they are created by an enemy player.

Dark Simulacrum now works on numerous additional spells in dungeon encounters.

Raise Ally has been redesigned to be a battle resurrection, analogous to Rebirth. It is instant cast, but costs 50 Runic Power to use, and has a 10-minute cooldown. It shares the same global battle resurrection cap with Rebirth and Soulstone.

Blood

Blood Shield now only works while in Blood Presence.

Death Strike self-healing no longer generates threat.

Frost

Blood of the North (passive) now permanently converts both Blood Runes into Death Runes. There is no longer any proc interaction with Blood Strike required to activate Death Runes.

Frost Strike now deals 130% of weapon damage, up from 110%.

Howling Blast damage has been increased by 20%. To compensate, the area-of-effect splash now does 50% of the single-target damage, down from 60%. The net result of this change leaves the area-of-effect damage roughly the same as 4.0.6 numbers. In addition, Howling Blast now has a facing requirement.

Unholy

Desecration no longer triggers when an applicable strike hits a snare-immune target. This is primarily to avoid unnecessary spell effect clutter during boss encounters.

Rage of Rivendare again applies 15/30/45% additional damage to Plague, Scourge, and Festering Strike, up from 12/24/36%.

Glyphs

Glyph of Raise Ally is now Glyph of Death Gate, and makes Death Gate cast 60% faster.

Lacerate bonus threat has been removed and replaced with increased initial damage done.

Efflorescence has a new spell effect.

Enrage no longer increases physical damage taken.

Lifebloom's bloom effect has been reduced by 20%.

Prowl has a new icon.

Savage Defense has been redesigned slightly. Instead of a single charge absorption, it now places an absorption effect on the druid absorbing up to 35% of the druid's attack power (modified by mastery, if applicable) in damage and lasting 10 seconds. There are no longer any charges on the effect.

Stampeding Roar's duration has been increased to 8 seconds, up from 6. The movement speed effect has been increased to 60%, up from 40% and is no longer cancelled by cancelling shapeshift form.

Swipe (Bear) cooldown has been reduced to 3 seconds, down from 6, and is now on trainable at level 18 (training cost has been reduced). In addition, the bonus threat from this ability has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.

Swipe (Cat) damage has been doubled.

Thrash bonus threat has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.

Druids now innately have 100% pushback protection from damage while channeling Tranquility.

Balance

Starsurge damage has been reduced by 20%.

Solar Beam is now more responsive when enemies move into or out of it.

Feral

Berserk is no longer on the global cooldown.

Feral Swiftness now also causes Dash and Stampeding Roar to have a 50/100% chance to instantly remove all movement impairing effects from the affected targets when used.

Efflorescence has been redesigned. It creates a healing zone at the feet of a Swiftmend target, but this healing zone now restores health equal to 4/8/12% of the amount healed by Swiftmend to the three most injured targets within 8 yards, every 1 second for 7 seconds. This periodic effect now also benefits from spell haste, but the individual ticks cannot be critical effects. In addition, Living Seed is no longer a prerequisite talent for Efflorescence.

Malfurion's Gift now reduces the cooldown of Tranquility by 2.5/5 minutes.

Nature's Swiftness now also increases the healing done by the affected nature spell by 50%.

Glyphs

Glyph of Rake is now Glyph of Pounce, which increases the range of Pounce by 3 yards.

Druid Bug Fixes

The troll druid models for Flight Form and Swift Flight Form has slimmed down to be more in scale with other druid flight forms.

Tame Beast now tames pets to match the hunter's level, rather than 3 levels below.

Pets

The Feed Pet ability now instantly heals 50% of the pet's health. Cannot be used in combat. Requires diet-appropriate food.

The Happiness/Pet Loyalty System has been removed. Hunters will no longer have to manage Happiness for their pets, and the previous damage bonus for pets being happy will now be baseline for all tamed pets.

Bloodthirsty no longer generates Happiness.

Carrion Feeder no longer restores Happiness.

Guard Dog no longer causes Growl to generate additional Happiness.

Summoned pets now start with 100 focus, up from 0.

Glyphs

Glyph of Mend Pet is now Glyph of Lesser Proportion, which decreases the size of the pet slightly.

Hunter Bug Fixes

Hunters will no longer automatically acquire a new target if the current target dies in the middle of a cast.

Aimed Shot and Steady Shot should no longer start casting Auto Shot on a new target when the "Stop Auto Attack" option enabled.

Auto Shot now automatically turns off until reactivated once Freezing Trap is cast on an enemy player.

Deterrence: The area damage of the paladin ability Hammer of the Righteous will no longer hit hunters with Deterrence active.

Distracting Shot and Multi-Shot are now properly 40-yard range.

Intervene (Tenacity pet ability) range has been increased so that the pet will properly intercept attacks.

Multi-Shot now properly has a 1-second global cooldown.

Scatter Shot's disorient effect should no longer sometimes be broken by the hunter's Auto Shot.

Arcane Blast cast time has been reduced to 2.0 seconds, down from 2.35 seconds. In addition, the stacking effect of Arcane Blast now increases the damage done by Arcane Explosion, and Arcane Explosion does not consume that effect.

Arcane Explosion damage has been increased by 30%.

Arcane Missiles damage has been increased by 13%.

Blizzard damage has been increased by 70%.

Frost Armor has been reworked:

It now reduces physical damage taken by 15%, instead of providing 20% additional armor.

The Chilled proc from Frost Armor can no longer proc Fingers of Frost.

The attack speed slow from the Chilled proc is now 20%, down from 25%, but it also affects ranged attack speed.

Frost Armor also no longer increases Frost resistance.

Frostbolt damage has been increased by 10%.

Arcane

Arcane Barrage damage has been increased by 13%.

Improved Arcane Explosion now also reduces the mana cost of Arcane Explosion by 25/50%.

Fire

Combustion no longer has a global cooldown.

Ignite is no longer triggered from periodic critical effects.

Frost

Fingers of Frost bonus damage applied to Ice Lance has been increased to 25%, up from 15%.

Ice Barrier base damage value has been increased by approximately 120%. In addition, the benefit from spell power has been increased by approximately 8%.

The root effect from Shattered Barrier now shares diminishing returns with the root from Improved Cone of Cold.

Stealth base cooldown has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 10, and the movement penalty from being in Stealth has been removed.

Tricks of the Trade now has a 100-yard range, up from 20.

Combat

Improved Recuperate now adds 0.5%/1% to the health restoration effect of Recuperate, down from 1%/2%.

Subtlety

Cheat Death now reduces damage taken by 80% while in effect, down from 90%. Its internal cooldown has been raised to 90 seconds, up from 60.

Nightstalker now reduces the cooldown of Stealth by 2/4 seconds, and instead of negating the movement penalty from Stealth, it adds a 5/10% movement speed bonus (stacking with other effects) while Stealthed.

Fire Nova has been redesigned and decoupled from shaman Fire totems. Instead, it now pulses the Fire Nova effect from each target that is afflicted by the shaman's own Flame Shock debuff. It now damages all enemies except the target hit by Flame Shock. The ability's cooldown has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 10.

Grounding Totem cooldown has been increased to 25 seconds, up from 15.

Earthquake is no longer a channeled spell. It now has a 2-second cast time, lasts for 10 seconds, and has a 10-second cooldown. Its damage has been reduced by 40% from its channeled version.

Enhancement

Improved Fire Nova has been redesigned and replaced by a talent called Seasoned Winds. When an enemy spell cast is successfully prevented with Wind Shear, the shaman gains magical resistance (in an amount equal to what a protection totem/aura would grant, stacking with such buffs) to the spell school(s) of the interrupted spell (except for Holy spells), lasting 10 seconds.

Restoration

Cleansing Waters now has a 6-second internal cooldown.

Deep Healing now benefits all heals, not just direct heals.

Earth Shield healing done by Restoration shaman has been reduced by 20%.

Nature's Blessing has been improved to 6/12/18% bonus direct healing on Earth Shielded targets, up from 5/10/15%.

Spirit Link Totem (new talent) reduces damage taken by all party and raid members within 10 yards by 10%. This lasts 6 seconds, and every second it is active the health of all affected players is redistributed among them, such that each player ends up with the same percentage of their maximum health. This counts as an Air totem and has a 3-minute cooldown.

Glyphs

Glyph of Grounding Totem: The increased cooldown of Grounding Totem applied by this glyph has been reduced to 35 seconds, down from 45 seconds.

Shaman Bug Fixes

The tooltips for shaman healing spells are now displaying correct values when points are distributed into any rank of the Spark of Life talent.

Dark Intent: The friendly target of this ability now receives 1% (stacking 3 times to 3%) periodic spell damage and healing bonus instead of 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%). The casting Warlock still receives 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%).

Rain of Fire damage has been increased by 25%.

Seed of Corruption damage has been increased by 20%.

Soulstone can now be used in combat to resurrect a targeted dead player.

Affliction

Haunt damage has been increased by 30%.

Shadow Mastery (passive) has been increased to 30%, up from 25%.

Unstable Affliction damage done when it is dispelled has been doubled, but this damage can no longer be critical.

Demonology

Mana Feed now restores more mana (four times as much) when the warlock is using a Felguard or Felhunter.

Pets

Doomguard's damage has been increased by 50%. The Doomguard is intended to be the best guardian for single-target damage, and the Infernal the best when there are multiple targets.

Lash of Pain (Succubus) damage now scales with level, reducing the damage done at lower levels such that it will deal 50% damage at level 20, and 100% damage at level 80 and above.

Shadow Bite (Felhunter) damage and effect has doubled.

Glyphs

Glyph of Soul Swap now increases the cooldown of Soul Swap by 15 seconds, up from 10 seconds.

Charge and Intercept no longer have diminishing returns on their stun effects.

Colossus Smash now ignores 50% of a hostile player's armor (PvP), but continues to ignore 100% of a non-player character's armor (PvE).

Heroic Throw is now available from trainers at level 20.

Heroic Leap is no longer on the global cooldown, similar to other warrior movement abilities.

Inner Rage is now available at level 56.

Intercept now has a 1.5-second stun, down from 3 seconds.

Pummel is now usable in all stances.

Rallying Cry (new ability) is available from trainers at level 83. It temporarily grants the warrior and all party or raid members within 30 yards 20% of maximum health for 10 seconds. After the effect expires, the health is lost. It has no cost, no stance requirements, and is not on the global cooldown. It has a 3-minute cooldown, but also shares a cooldown with Last Stand.

Shield Bash has been removed from the game.

Spell Reflection cooldown has been increased to 25 seconds, up from 10.

Whirlwind now has its cooldown reduced by 6 seconds when it deals damage to 4 or more targets. The Whirlwind effect caused by Bladestorm remains unchanged.

Arms

Improved Hamstring now reduces the global cooldown on Hamstring by 0.25/0.5 seconds in addition to its current effects.

Juggernaut no longer adds 2 seconds to the Charge stun, but instead lowers the cooldown of Charge by 2 seconds (to 13 seconds total without the glyph).

Lambs to the Slaughter now causes Mortal Strike to refresh Rend in addition to its current effects.

Strikes of Opportunity value per point of mastery has been increased by 10%.

Fury

Precision (passive) now increase auto-attack damage by 40%, in addition to the 3% hit it offers currently.

Unshackled Fury now only grants 2 base points of mastery, down from 8.

Protection

Shield Mastery no longer affects the cooldown of Spell Reflection, however, it now allows Shield Block to proc a second aura that reduces magic damage by 7/14/20% for 6 seconds.

Gag Order now applies to Pummel and Heroic Throw, giving these abilities a 100% chance to silence the target for 3 seconds. In addition, Gag Order lowers the cooldown of Heroic Throw by 30 seconds.

Glyphs

Glyph of Spell Reflection reduces the cooldown of Spell Reflection by 5 seconds, up from 1 second.

Dungeons & Raids

Rise of the Zandalari

Zul'Aman is now a level-85 5-player Heroic dungeon. Players with a minimum average item level of 346 or higher can access this dungeon via the Dungeon Finder.

Zul'Gurub is now a level-85 5-player Heroic dungeon. Players with a minimum average item level of 346 or higher can access this dungeon via the Dungeon Finder.

Both Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman exist in a separate tier in the Dungeon Finder above the current level-85 Heroic dungeons. Players can randomly queue for either dungeon by selecting the Rise of the Zandalari setting.

Dungeon Finder

The Dungeon Finder now attempts to avoid putting damage-dealing classes with the same armor type in a group.

Players will now get bonus rewards 7 times per week (while earning less than 980 Valor Points) instead of once a day when using Dungeon Finder.

When there is only 1 player left in a Dungeon Finder group, they will now be able to queue for replacements as long as they queue within 2 minutes or stay in the dungeon.

The Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms will now identify which class role is currently the least represented in the queue, and offer them additional rewards for entering the Dungeon Finder queue and completing a random level-85 Heroic dungeon.

The least represented class icon will show within the Dungeon Finder to indicate the role that is eligible to earn the bonus reward.

Players must queue solo with the currently indicated least represented class (by the system) and complete the dungeon up to and including the final boss in order to be eligible for the bonus reward.

The bonus reward will be displayed to eligible (system identified as least represented) classes within the UI.

Once the dungeon is completed the eligible player will receive a Satchel of Exotic Mysteries (account bound) with various potential rewards including: gold, rare gems, non-combat pets, and (very rare) mounts.

Blackrock Caverns

Aura of Arcane Haste now has a clearer visual on the bearer of the aura.

Bound Flames in the Karsh Steelbender encounter no longer create Lava Pools when they are killed.

The Short Throw ability used by Twilight Sadists has had its range reduced to 10 yards.

Blackwing Descent

Atramedes

Searing Flames now causes a 6-second cooldown on Modulation.

Searing Flames no longer increases Sound on players.

Players should no longer be able to avoid the first period damage tick of Searing Flame, and Searing Flame now ticks every 2 seconds. The damage of Searing Flame has been increased to compensate for it ticking less frequently.

The Bile-O-Tron 800 in the Chimaeron encounter is now more resistant to being knocked offline many times in rapid succession.

Flash Bomb (Golem Sentry ability) now has a more clear warning visual.

Magmaw now triggers a raid emote when summoning Lava Parasites.

Maloriak

Maloriak now has a brief windup before beginning to channel Arcane Storm, slightly increasing the amount of time players have before the spell begins to deal damage.

Further improvements have been made in the Maloriak encounter to avoid Flash Freeze targeting the tanks.

Nefarian's End

The damage of Shadowflame Barrage has been reduced by 15% (10-player normal and Heroic difficulty only).

The damage of Tail Lash has been reduced by 20% (10-player normal and Heroic difficulty only).

The Bastion of Twilight

Dragon Siblings

Blackout can now be dispelled on Heroic difficulty.

Cho'gall

The health of Blood of the Old God on 10-player Heroic difficulty has been lowered by roughly 20%.

The health of Darkened Creations on 10-player Heroic difficulty has been lowered by roughly 20%.

The corruption gained from Corruption: Accelerated on 10-player Heroic difficulty has been lowered slightly.

Knockbacks and Deathgrip can now be used to interrupt players that are converted by Cho'gall.

Visual effects during the Lady Naz'jar have been improved for clarity.

Blight Beasts summoned during the Ozumat encounter now deal less damage with Aura of Dread.

Uldaman

The Staff of Prehistoria is no longer required to open the door in the Map Room.

Baelog's chest has been given new loot. If it's grey it's good, right?

Vortex Pinnacle

The Air Nova ability triggered when a Gust Soldier is killed has had its knockback effect reduced.

Altairus now spawns closer to the center of his platform, away from the edge.

Temple Adepts and Ministers of Air now wait 2 seconds before starting a spell cast when they are first engaged.

Wailing Caverns

The maze section has been removed to make the overall dungeon more accessible and quicker to complete. Nearby creatures and bosses have been adjusted to compensate.

Zul'Farrak

Troll Cages no longer require the Executioner's Key to open.

The gold amounts awarded for the following encounters have been substantially reduced: Flame Leviathan, Magtheridon, Gruul the Dragonkiller, Doom Lord Kazzak, and all encounters in Karazhan.

Dungeon & Raid Bug Fixes

The tooltip for the Luck of the Draw buff now dynamically updates based on how many stacks are present.

The tooltip for Stolen Power during the Nefarian's End encounter now displays the correct bonus percentage.

Drake vehicles now properly animate when attacking in the air.

Guilds

The criteria on many of the profession-related guild achievements has been significantly reduced.

The Guild Perk, Cash Flow, no longer prints out text to the Chat Log. Instead, the daily amount deposited is shown in the Guild Vault Money Log. In addition, players can view the weekly contribution in a new window at the bottom of the Money Log.

Two new custom guild tabards have been added as Guild Rewards. The tabards are account bound and offer a bonus to gaining guild reputation.

The Reins of the Dark Phoenix, purchased from the Guild Vendor, has had its art improved. It's now less transparent and indisputably more awesome.

The amount of guild experience rewarded for rated Battleground guild group wins has been dramatically increased.

Players are now rewarded guild experience for Honorable Kills in the field.

Players are now rewarded guild experience for Battleground wins in Battleground brackets up to level 80.

Arena teams are now awarded guild experience for wins. The entire team must be members of the same guild to earn this experience.

Each challenge can be completed a set number of times per week. Guild groups participating in level-appropriate Heroic or normal difficulty dungeons and raids, or rated Battlegrounds, will automatically qualify for challenge credit.

Each time a Guild Challenge is completed, the guild will be awarded experience and gold deposited directly into the Guild Vault, as well as the opportunity to earn all-new achievements. A popup or "toast" will be displayed to confirm a Guild Challenge has been completed (similar to achievement alerts).

Guild experience earned via Guild Challenges will be awarded above the daily cap. The experience cap will move forward relative to the amount of experience obtained through completing Guild Challenges (similar to rested experience for characters).

Guilds already at the level cap will be awarded substantially more gold in place of guild experience.

Gold rewards are deposited into the guild bank once the guild reaches level 5. The text for the Cash Flow guild perk has been updated appropriately.

Guild Finder

A new Guild Finder button will now appear on the Micro Menu for guild leaders, as well as players without a guild.

A Guild Interests field allows players to form a guild around common interests: Questing, Dungeons, Raids, PvP, and Role Playing.

An Availability field allows players to note whether or not weekdays or weekends are better for playing.

The Class Roles field allows players to indicate the role or roles they are capable of, and willing to fill.

A Comment box is also available for supplying additional information.

Once a player has filled out the Guild Interests field, the Browse Guilds tab allows them to find guilds actively recruiting via the Guild Finder. Guilds listed here are displayed according to common interests.

The Requests tab tracks all recruitment requests submitted by an unguilded player, or submitted to the leader of a selected guild.

Items

The PvP Horde and Alliance trinkets have a new spell effect.

Account Bound Items

Many "Account Bound" heirlooms are now labeled as "Battle.net Account Bound", meaning that they can also be traded or mailed to characters that are on different World of Warcraft accounts under the same Battle.net account.

Mail sent to characters on the same Battle.net account now arrives instantaneously, as it does for the same World of Warcraft account.

Mailing account-bound items to characters of the opposite faction on the same Battle.net account will now correctly translate faction-specific items to their appropriate equivalent.

All trade goods available for purchase with Honor or Justice Points from the associated commodities vendors have had their prices reduced by 50%.

Maelstrom Crystals are now available for purchase with Honor or Justice Points from the associated commodities vendors.

Item Sets

The current damage-dealing death knight 4-piece raid set bonus now also grants increased attack power when Killing Machine triggers, as well as when the death knight gains Death Runes).

The current Holy paladin 4-piece raid set bonus now grants 540 Spirit for 6 seconds after casting Holy Shock.

The current healing priest 4-piece raid set bonus no longer requires a target to be under the effects of Weakened Soul for the priest to receive the Spirit bonus. Instead the benefit will be granted each time the priest's Penance spell heals a target.

The caster shaman 4-piece PvP set bonus now reduces the cooldown of Grounding Totem by 3 seconds, up from 1.5.

Item Bug Fixes

Players are now properly seated on stone drake and wind drake models.

Stone drakes no longer clip into the ground when attacked.

Many pieces of crafted epic armor have had sockets added.

Furious Gladiator's Greatsword (and other swords with the same model) no longer disappear when wielded.

Random enchantment items (of the bear, of the whale, etc.) no longer use obsolete item modifiers such as attack power or spell power.

Professions

All major cities will now have every type of profession trainer and their associated trade supply vendors.

New Cooking and Fishing Dailies have been added to Darnassus, Ironforge, Thunder Bluff, and Undercity.

Alchemy

Flask of Steelskin now grants 450 Stamina, up from 300. The Mixology bonus for alchemists remains at 120 Stamina.

Archaeology

Seven new rare items have been added.

Players now have a much smaller chance of getting a dig site for a race for which they have completed all rare finds.

PvP

The rate at which Honor Points are earned has been doubled.

Arenas

Arena matchmaking can now extend beyond a team's Battlegroup.

Battlegrounds

Battleground raid leaders can now move players from other realms among raid subgroups.

The Focused Assault and Brutal Assault buffs have changed.

After 3 minutes of both teams having the flag, both flag carriers will get Focused Assault, which increases damage taken by 10%.

Every minute afterward, an additional stack will be applied to increase damage taken by an additional 10%.

After 7 minutes, Brutal Assault will be applied in place of Focused Assault. In additional to the damage debuff, this debuff also caps the player's movement speed at 100%. The damage taken debuff works the same and will add 10% to the debuff up to a maximum of 100% damage taken.

Arathi Basin

Arathi Basin is now available as a 10v10-player rated Battleground.

Flags should now cap in 7 seconds, down from 8.

The Battle for Gilneas

Flags should now cap in 7 seconds, down from 8.

Graveyard Changes

Players who die at a control point that they own will now be teleported to the next closest graveyard, instead of the one at which they died.

If a player's team owns the Mine and Waterworks, and dies at Waterworks, they will be teleported to the Mine.

If an Alliance player's team only owns Lighthouse, and dies at Lighthouse, they will respawn at their base.

If a Horde player's team owns Waterworks and Mine, and dies at Lighthouse, they will respawn at Waterworks.

Twin Peaks

Graveyard Changes

Players will now only spawn at their base graveyard when they die in the enemy base.

Defending players will respawn at the middle graveyard.

Midfield players will respawn at the middle graveyard.

Attacking players will respawn at their base graveyard.

Warsong Gulch

The graveyards outside both bases have been lowered in elevation and are no longer on the same plane as the main flag room entrances to either respective base.

Quests & Creatures

A handful of quests have been added to Northern Barrens to provide more level 18-20 content. Look for new quests at Nozzlepot's Outpost and Darsok's Outpost.

Loot from the creatures Garr, Julak-Doom, Mobus, Akma'Hat, Xariona, and Poseidus has been adjusted to be commensurate to their rarity and invested effort.

Quest Bug Fixes

Agatha is now always present to provide quests for newly created undead characters.

Players properly sit on Bastia's back during the quest "To the Cliffs" on the Lost Isles.

There should no longer be phasing issues during the quest "Detonation" in Redridge Mountains.

"Blackriver Skirmish" in Grizzly Hills now awards Honor Points.

The vehicle for the quest "Tailgunner!" in Uldum now aims in the correct direction.

Races

The gnomish racial ability, Escape Artist, is no longer affected by the global cooldowns triggered by other abilities.

The human racial ability, Every Man for Himself, has a new spell effect.

Race Bug Fixes

Worgen females have learned how to laugh out loud.

User Interface

Like the Focus Frame, the character Unit and Target Frames can now be unlocked and moved to one's content.

Spells bound to a key now start to be cast when the button is pressed down by default, instead of waiting for the key to go up. This is an option that can be turned off in the Interface menu under Combat. Mouse clicking has not changed and operates on mouse click up.

Targets and focus targets now display on the mini-map.

Moved Video and Sound to a new "Options" screen.

Added a network category to the new Options screen and included the two network checkboxes.

The Network category contains the options "Optimize network for speed" and "Enable IPv6 when available". "Optimize network for speed" will be enabled by default, and will send packets more frequently at the cost of higher bandwidth. The higher bandwidth may lead to disconnects for some players who have limited bandwidth. Players getting disconnected frequently should try unchecking this box.

Visual Settings Updates

Removed the red bar preventing the overall graphics slider from going to ultra based on computer specs.

When a player moves the overall slider to a setting that would have previously been prevented, any option that can't go as high as that setting will get the warning icon with a tooltip explaining why it can't go higher. For example: a player sets the overall slider to Ultra and the water setting can only go to Fair. The water setting would automatically switch to Fair.

Support for DirectX 11 can now be found in the Advanced tab of the Options screen.

At the login screen:

Moved the "Reset User Options" button from the popup window that appears when clicking Options to the actual Options window.

Clicking Options now goes directly to the Video tab of the Options screen.

well im lvling a rogue and love the changes. but as my mains a mage I honestly cant wait for 4.2 as I ****ing want firelands! o well atleast blizz is giving us something to tide us over unlike what they did between nax and uld in wrath.

Fire Nova has been redesigned and decoupled from shaman Fire totems. Instead, it now pulses the Fire Nova effect from each target that is afflicted by the shaman's own Flame Shock debuff. It now damages all enemies except the target hit by Flame Shock. The ability's cooldown has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 10.

Is it just me or does this change seem to make elemental shammy aoe a bit convoluted. I'm all for making things a bit more interesting, but this seems to be a rather strange move;o Or maybe I am not thinking about it correctly.

with some classes having 3 specs takes a lot of the fun out of making specs. if blizz was using the old method of spec aka the 71or rather 76 talant point would honestly warent 3 specs. but with 41 point trees and the fact you're locked into a spec, its just not that necessary. besides is fairly cheap to respec and glyphs are permanent, so whats that big deal about respecing?

people will need on every roll because they are going to DE them into maelstrom crystals for themselves ( i know the "need" appears only if u have possible spec for it, yes...start kicking pally, druids who can need any thing as long as its their amour type)

I was about to say well done for being able to copy and paste, then I saw it was the admin
Anyway, great that it's finally coming out. Can't wait.
It's just a shame I'm on holiday, but I suppose 4.1 will still be there when I get back.